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Wigan cheating the system again - he shouldn't get a work permit. Not had a head coaching job before......

To be fair though, he isn't heading to a top grade club so it shouldnt matter.

yes - but he shouldn't be granted a work permit. there are plenty of unemployed average UK coaches/assistant coaches who can do an average job for an average team.....

Also - he has had bad advice. Wigan is a coaching graveyard. Very few go on to coach anywhere else at the the top level.

I have smoother voice than Alf Stewart. Its got a warmth to it, a tone that would probably make you a little wet.

So we shouldnt be allowed to employ one of the hottest young coaching talents just because he's not actually coached first team full time before? Wayne Bennett rates the guy very highly, as do others in the know.

Its TERRIBLY difficult to get a coaching job in the NRL and Im sure he'll be able to pay the bills easier on his new salary at Wigan.


I think he'll be fantastic for the club if he is allowed to do his job. However.....Im not so sure he'll be able to.

Not under the RFL rules no. And I guess this is needed to be granted a work permit to work in the UK. He simply hasn;t had a job senior enough to get the permit.

He might have one of my "We consider you a Pom but you dont need to vote" Visas.

The rules changed, as long as someone gets an RFL certificate of approval can apply for a work permit and a visa.

Would like to think this has been done.

And what criteria do the RFL use to judge whether to issue certificates for players? I presume it must require a minimum number of first grade appearances over a particular period, so why aren't the same criteria applied to head coaches?

That's because once you leave Wigan, the only way is down.



Anyway, Wigan are aiming high. They want the best and this chap has been lauded as the next Wayne Bennett in some circles, and as a future great in others. Craig Bellamy sings his praises in [url=http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/sport/nrl/story/0,26746,23170656-5003409,00.htmlthis article[/url.


I'm dead set against too many imports in the SL, and would love a team of locals and an English, or ideally a Wigan coach in the job, but the fact is Maguire has coached at the champion team in the NRL for several years and comes with a pretty damn good pedigree.

Oh, and we own the RFL.

Wigan needed special dispensation from the Rugby Football League to employ Maguire, who was not at Wednesday's press conference at the DW Stadium but will join the club next month.
Celtic did the same with John Dixon. Where you up in arms about that?



It's all downhill after coaching at Wigan

Sweepstake for which month there is a 36 page McGuire Out thread on cherry&white?

I will go for July 2010.

I'll go for March 2010 started by me



Seems as though I'm the only Wigan fan unconvinced by his appointment, everyone else seems happy enough at this stage.

What are your reservations concerning the appointment?

The fact that he is an unproven 1st team coach in either the NRL or SL, in my time of watching Wigan I have never known us to go for an assistant coach with little 1st team experience, unless they was already assistant at Wigan. He may have been assistant in the NRL with the Melbourne Storm who are one of the top teams but that was as assistant, I hope I'm wrong and he takes us to that next level that Nobby couldn't do but I just feel it's a big risk.

Come on Mini, there's a risk with every appointment be it coach or player.
Maguire appears ready for a first team coaches job and he'll get every assistance from Lenegan as he's his man.
Noble was Mo's man and he's gone.
IL has to deliver now and he'll give Maguire every support he needs.
The last two Final Eliminator games Wigan lost at KR and the Shed were by 4 points.
It won't take a great deal of improvement to get Wigan into finals and winning them.
IL and Wigan has the money to buy, also Wigan have the best reserves and youth structure by a country mile!
Wigan have a lot going for them, come Mimi be optimistic!

I dont know much about him, but I do know he will be a million times better than Noble, Millward or any coach Wigan have had over the last ten years.

Ah well,

Red Hall should have an internal look at all the money it wastes in a financial years.

I can save the game £'000's of pounds.

Ditch all the development schemes for both coaches and players, for as can be seen, these are entirely useless.

A lot of money has been spent that perhaps really should have gone to clubs to BUY "better" players from overseas.

I await the day when someone at the top will admit that the "best we can do" is become an inferior copy of the game in Australia.

1982 was a watershed.

And where are we now?

Overseas coaches ( NOT THE BEST BY A COUNTRY MILE) and past it, crocked, pension seeking, last fling players who contribute very little but take an awful lot out of the game.

The people I really feel truly sorry for are the people who put hours into the game with kids and amateur teams for no financial reward only to see their efforts wasted.

We are all doomed!!

Wigan should have gone for Karl Harrison, Paul Cullen or Daryl Powell instead. Invest in the future of our sport with these up and coming coaches who are sure to lead us to the promised land?

Or maybe Wigan have invested in Maguire to not only win us things but also to develop a certain MR Wane who got a promotion today.

Didn’t John Sharpe, Rotherham, Brain McDermott etc all coach at top SL clubs before having a go themselves.

Isn’t there a difference between coaching and being the person responsible for the coaches?

I think the point is being missed.


The best coach available got the job. You can't argue with that.

He is part of the most successful coaching team in the history of the modern game.

He has been at the cutting edge of the latest training techniques, tactics, game stratgies and such for the last few years.

He is the best available.


Surely it is the clubs responsibility for its fans AND its players to get the best coach it possibly can no matter where he is from.


You can not like it all you want, but the fact is that if you want the best, you buy Australian.

Very true.

Remains to be seen how he copes as a head coach. Pressure does funny things to people, but is the pressure as head coach of Wigan really any greater than as an assistant in the NRL?